What it is: a blog, a forum , a little spring of knowledge, a resting place, a comfortable spot, a shelter.
Purpose: dissemination of art, poetry, literature, for life, for healing, for a balanced wellness, an approaching of the truth or truths of existence.

Monday, January 03, 2005

Travels to Marrakesh

I think that every week I'll feature a different country from the Arab speaking world here. Next Friday we'll start with Morocco, and work our way east.

To this day I wonder what ever happened to Bill Inglebright, who told me the day I ran into him at Manny's Pancake House, that he and his girlfriend were travelling thus, on the train from Morocco to Turkey. That was one spring day in 1985. I have never heard from him since.

Bill Inglebright introduced me to Zen Buddhism back in 1978-79, when I was a senior in English, where the teacher was Mr. Allard. This was at Galesburg Senior High School, Knox County, Illinois 61401. I was very straight-laced then. I thought Bill was something of a dumb jock, but he showed me, to my embarassment, that I had mis-judged him. He was actually very intelligent, wise, and humble enough to keep this on the down and low. Sure do miss him.

You are the Gender Abolitionist type of feminist. This means that you
feel the best way to destroy patriarchal oppression is to rid ourselves
of misguided gender roles, and instead live in a society that does not
make such marked assumptions about gender differences. The Gender
Abolitionist is culturally radical, but rather conservative when it
comes to sexual liberation and politics. You have a strong sense of
human rights for all. In fact, you are actually a very moral person.
You don't see people in terms of gender and are thus very philosophical
in order to perceive the world in such a manner. You think people
shouldn't identify others in terms of gender. When most people see a
person, the first thing they think is "That person is a woman" or "That
person is a man", but they do NOT think "That person is a
short-fingernail". Most make someone's gender their IDENTITY, but
fingernail length would never be considered part of their identity. A
gender abolitionist would claim gender should be like fingernail
length--it shouldn't be part of someone's identity. By making gender a
part of identity, difference is emphasized and oppression is often
justified. Thus, gender shouldn't be regarded to such a large extent by
society. You are mostly concerned with seeing women become fully
equalized with men by eliminating gender roles, as these roles oppress
women.